If only

“If only you had been here, my brother would not have died” John 11:21

 If only– Lazarus is dead.  Too late for Lazarus, but not too late for Martha to proclaim her lost hope.  She runs to Jesus as he approaches the house, saying, “If you were here.”  “If” – the word of exquisite hindsight.  How much of our own lives are built around “if”?  Here in Greek the word is ei.  It is not the only Greek word for “if”.  This word leaves no room for possible doubt.  Martha knows that if Jesus had just come on time, Lazarus would be alive. 

First Century Jewish theology believed that the spirit hovered over the departed body for three days, after which no recovery was possible.  So Jesus delays four days.  He waits long enough to be sure the superstition about death cannot play a role in God’s glory.  This lesson cannot be taught as long as human beings believe there is any hope within the world.  By the time Jesus arrives, everyone knows it is too late.  This is the confidence and the desperation of Martha.  She knows without doubt that Jesus could have done something.  But her faith is limited to her human horizon.  So Martha can say, without any equivocation, “if only”.  “I believe, Lord, that you could have done something, even after death, if only you were here in time.”  Martha’s vision is limited by the horizon of this world, even when that horizon is stretched beyond the grave.  It is four days, not three.  Now it’s too late. 

What is the stretched limit of our faith?  When does God arrive too late?  Are we not Marthas, standing in front of Jesus, proclaiming our utter conviction that if he had just come into the tragic circumstances of our lives a few hours earlier, we would have been saved?  “Jesus, why did you wait?  If you had just come a few hours earlier, things would have been right.”  How many times have our own prayers echoed timing limitations?  “I waited, God.  But You didn’t come on time.  Now it’s too late.”  The horizon we see is bound by the curve of our existence.

“Lord, the circumstances of my life are so overwhelming.  Things are beyond anyone’s power to restore.  It is too late.

My marriage is dead.

My career is finished.

My children are lost.

My hope is buried.

My life is ruined.

On every side, Lord, the tombs of life loom large.  The time for healing is past.  It has been four days.”

Have you set the limits of God’s arrival at the horizon of your sight?  Or are you ready for the rest of the story?

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